May Angels Lead You In
by ace-AMP
Summary: A sad fic on being too late [JT]
1. Time Goes On

TWO MONTHS AFTER 'Should I Stay, Or Should I Go'

A girl sat in front of a mirror, her bright red hair was tied back and pulled up, very unlike her. She sat there, staring into the mirror, with various bouquets of flowers crowding her vast make-up table. She didn't recognize the girl in the mirror. The girl was a woman and in love with a man who had just separated from her sister. As predicted Sadie couldn't stick to just one man and he often caught her eye wandering. This had given them an on off relationship. Unwisely Tommy often called her for advice and about this Sadie had become even more insecure about their relationship and Tommy's ever lingering feelings for Jude. So now the love of her life and her sister were on an official 'break'. She laughed at that, they'd never have the guts to break it off for good. And Jude was tired of waiting around. She hadn't furthered anything with Jamie and was happy to hear Kat and he had finally become official. She knew this time it was for real for them.

"Your on in five. Skin, Temporary Insanity, and Let Me Fall. Then your home free girl." She nodded in confirmation that she had it memorized and smiled and the rush of it all. It was the end of her first tour and she knew she was going to miss it. Soon she'd have to go back to school, back to divorced parents and a life-ruining sister. Yup, she just couldn't wait to get home. But she did have Kat and Jamie to look forward to. She smiled at that, she also had her second album to look forward to. Georgia already had Tommy signed on to be her producer again. Tommy had told her of many offers he'd gotten from other artists as a producer and even a solo career. He would think about taking it, but he never accepted any. Jude knew better than to take anything for granted and always left Tommy to himself when it came to his life decisions.

Tommy would never admit it, but he loved it when she intervened in his life. It showed that she did still care about him, and if he ever left her. Or at least a part of her did, and always would, care. That's why he was there that night, in Montreal on his flight back from Rome. Sadie would be back a week before Jude, and Tommy had decided to leave a little earlier than planned. Just to see her. He had stood in the crowed watching her as she melded with every chord and her voice, God her voice, sounded beautiful. As always. He debated on whether or not going backstage. Eventually decided against it, knowing her was still kinda with Sadie, and that Jude needed her time away from him. To find someone better for her than he was. Someone who could give her the world and more.

Jude stood up, pulled on her leather jacket, grabbed the microphone and headed for the stage. The lights burned her eyes for a second and then... she heard the screaming crowd. Cheering and applauding. She sat on the stool set in the middle of the stage and all lights landed on her as she pulled the guitar into her lap and began to play the chords. This was the dream wasn't it. This was what she'd always wanted and she only wondered now, as she sang into the microphone...

'I drift away to place Another kind of life Take away the pain I create my paradise...'

'Where do I go from here?' She knew full well that this wasn't it, this wasn't all there was. There was more to learn and love and cry over. And struggle wasn't so bad when you found the lesson in all of it.

'Everything I've held Has hit the wall What used to be yours Isn't yours at all...'

She laughed to herself as she saw the lighters swaying above heads in the vast crowds. She remembers all the things that had happened in her life when she wrote this song, scorning men she had long since reconciled with. And suddenly she missed Tommy, and sadness filled her up inside. Sending the song into tidal waves of emotions. Despite her encouragement in his and Sadie's relationship, promising him that it would get better, she still loved him. But she wouldn't stoop to the levels Sadie had when she'd begun to seduce Tommy into her web of 'Trophy Men'. Before she'd realized it, she had finished the song and the band was getting ready to play 'Temporary Insanity'. She went with the flow and again realized that maybe going home to all the bad stuff wouldn't be so bad. She couldn't wait to sleep in her own bed, laugh and talk with Jamie and Kat, especially making more music for her second album with Tommy.

Jude wasn't the only one looking forward to it, but Tommy was too. Tommy was in fact on his way to the Harrison residence at that very moment... to see Sadie and end things the right way. He knew it wouldn't really hurt him or Sadie very much, because they had been through this many times but this would be official. Because when he would pick Jude up at the airport the next morning he had planned to tell her the truth of his feelings for her. He turned on his stereo, and Jude's CD began to play. He hadn't taken the CD out since she left, and he listened to it every time he got in his car. The house came into view and Tommy stopped the car at the front, turning off the car Jude's voice came to a sudden and complete stop and he got an eerie feeling. He stayed in his car for a moment, for some reason fear and warning was filling him up inside. But he shook it off as nothing and walked inside. 


	2. Jude Harrison, Instant Star

Jude sat in front of the mirror, scrubbing off the heavy make-up, her hands roamed over the flat surface of her make-up table searching for her eye liner. She put on a light layer and left the rest of her face alone. She threw off the tiny black dress she'd worn out on stage, and put on a pair of jeans and a white tank. Turning to the mirror she not only caught her reflection but that of someone else. Someone she didn't recognize. He was around nineteen or twenty with short blonde hair and a tall strong build. He wore a black shirt, jeans, and an earpiece and carried a clipboard. He looked like half the other guys that worked on the crew. Hardly thinking anything of it she turned to him and asked,

"Are you apart of the crew? My mics' right there if that's what your looking for." He didn't move, didn't respond, and didn't speak. Only stared and watched her as she pulled on her sneakers. Jude stood as she noticed he was clutching the clipboard to his chest so hard his knuckles were white. "Are you okay?" She was concerned. Who was this guy? Everything happened in slow motion as he dropped the clipboard to reveal a gun. He held it up and pointed it at her. She stood in silence, stock still and eyes wide not leaving the gun.

"I love you Jude. Come away with me." He said it like any guy would say to a girl he liked, or in this case 'loved'. Jude was terrified and her wide eyes remained on the gun. She took a step back shaking her head at him. She almost tripped over her discarded heels, but continued to move backwards until her back hit the wall. He only moved closer to her, knowing now he had her trapped. "I don't wanna have to shoot you Jude." He gulped and she saw his Adams apple bob in his throat. "I love you."

"Get away from me." Her heart was racing and she couldn't think straight. "I-I'll call security." But he laughed at her and shook his head at her mockingly, but didn't say anything as they were only a foot apart now. "Help!" She knew she hadn't screamed loud enough, but her voice wouldn't cooperate with her. He turned towards the door for a second; seizing the moment she grabbed the gun and tried to twist it out of his grip.

"You bitch!" He yelled at her as their hands entangled around the gun, wrestling for it. Loud and clear she heard it go off, but only the sound of screaming fans filled her ears as a warm liquid covered her hands.

00

"We need to stop playing this game Sadie. You don't love me anymore, it's just not there anymore. Not with us." She nodded, agreeing that what he said was true.

"I'm sorry." Was all she said.

"You don't have to be, it's not anyone's fault. Things just kind of happened."

"I know, but it was great while it lasted." She smiled at him and he smiled back. "Are you hungry?"

"A little." He admitted as his stomach growled.

"We have some left over pasta. I can heat it up for us. Kinda the last meal, you know?" She laughed as she rummaged through the fridge contents for the favored bowl of left over pasta. He laughed too as she pushed it into the microwave. Walking over to the counter where he sait she spoke again. "Promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Promise me you'll treat her right." Tommy felt guilt at that, she knew all this time. But nodded in response all the same.

"I'm in love with her, I know it won't change, but I can't picture my life without her." But again that fear and warning tugged at his heart, and again, he brushed it off.

00

She couldn't breathe right as she sunk to her knees on the soft black carpet floor. Shock numbed her pain as well as the rest of her body. She saw the fear in the boys eyes as he pushed the gun into the back of his jeans and tucked his shirt over it. He grabbed her discarded black dress from the floor and wipped her blood off of his hands. She watched as he practically sprinted out of the room. She felt paralyzed and cold as she sunk even further down, ending up sprawled across the floor. The door was so far, she tried to crawl towards it, but the pain was too much.

She collapsed again her hand covering the hole in her body, as though it might save her. She wanted to scream for help, but so much blood was lost and she was too weak already. She lied there, praying someone would find her soon. All she wanted now was to be in her own bed. All she wanted was to be home and nowhere else. Her vision blurred as she stared at the ceiling, decorated with album covers and posters of all different kinds of artists from all kinds of genres. She thought about how much her dad and Tommy might've liked the room. How much Sadie might've enjoyed the concert. And of how her mom would have loved to see her try on things from her wardrobe selection.

"Someone help me..." Her vision went black and it took her a moment to realize she'd closed her eyes. She tried to force herself to open them to hold on just a minuet longer, someone was bound to find her by then. But the crowd was so loud and the place was in such a rush, no one had heard the gun shot. And no one saw the boy with a bloody black shirt as he slithered his was out of backstage and to his car.

Eventually Jude could will herself no more and only wished she could have told him she loved him. Maybe then things might've been different.

00

00

"This is good." Tommy spoke with a full mouth and Sadie giggled at his brief moment of immaturity.

"Yes it is, and you have talented me to thank for that."

"Jude, couldn't cook for the life of her." He had said it without thinking and looked up instantly to see Sadie still smiling at him.

"You really do love her don't you?"

"I couldn't live without her. I mean, I've never been away from her for this long before."

"She's addictive. Happy, and vulnerable all at once. She's always been like that. Her one talent got her the world."

"Your talented too Sadie."

"Yeah, but mine won't take me the places Jude's took her. I wouldn't be there anyways. I want to be a model, or a fashion consultant. Something along those lines."

"You'll get there. I promise."

"And you'll marry Jude one day."

"Am I supposed to take that as a sarcastic insult?"

"No, it's a promise." She said it so confidently Tommy believed her. He let his mind wonder to Jude in a long white dress and walking down the isle towards him, and now he couldn't wait for that day. Not considering that it would never get to happen.

00

00

E.J stood in the room her cell phone in one hand and her other hand covering her mouth as she watched the E.M.T's try to revive Jude. A crew member had found her in there when he'd come to get her mic. It was a horrifying site. Jude's body was sprawled across the floor her arms and white shirt covered in her own blood. Her hair was laying in a halo around her, dull and lifeless and her lips were white almost as she laid there unmoving. Spiederman crew members waited outside for the news that she'd been revived and would live. But this was not the case.

The E.M.T's spent twenty minuets trying to revive her, and time passed like endless years. She had fought so hard for her life, she hadn't gotten the chance to live it the way she wanted. A lovesick boy took that from her, a boy she had never met let alone spoken to or even seen. She was star and for however short she may have burned, she burned the brightest in the sea of sky. But as all lights go, she flickered out. And time suspended in air as she took her last breath, and last wish.

E.J stood in the corner of the room her hands over her face as tears and sobs consumed her. The band members outside comforted one another as the announcement was made to the closest of people, the press did not matter now. Life did not seem so great and wonderous, only too short and too beautiful. Angels have never come and gone so silently before, like wisp of wind blows out the last candle on the table. They slipped her into a black bag, like she was any other person. But she wasn't just any other person. She was Jude Harrison, Instant Star. 


	3. Without and Then With

"She loved to watch my dad play the guitar. I always danced-" Sadie cut herself off as the she heard the phone behind her ring. She turned and threw Tommy a smiled before clicking the talk button.

"Hello?" Sadie answered with a sing-song voice. It was E.J. "Hey E.J! How's Jude? Tell her me and Tommy say hi." Tommy's ears perked up at this and he was dying to ask if her could talk to Jude. He just needed to hear her voice, that would hold him until he could see her tomorrow.

"Hello? E.J are you still there?" Sadie sounded a little worried when she heard no response. "E.J?"

"Something's happened..." Came E.J's voice, which was hoarse and scratchy.

"What do you mean something's happened? Is Jude gonna be late?" Sadie questioned lightly, thinking that Jude wasn't ready to come back yet and what a drag it would be to have to wait around until she was ready.

"She's not coming home Sadie..."

"What do you mean she's not coming home?" Sadie practically yelled into the phone, thinking her sister had skipped out on them and bought house down there or something.

"She's dead Sadie..." Breath caught in Sadie's throat and tears filled her eyes, the phone slipped from her hand and broken into a dozen pieces as it hit the floor. Tommy rushed over to her side. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly.

"Sadie what's wrong? Look at me." But she wouldn't as she sobbed and shook her head yelling no.

"No! N-no, no..."

"No what!"

"She was supposed to come home..." Sadie sobbed.

"I'll drag her back down here if I have to, just tell me what happened?" Sadie stopped trying to get out of his grasp and looked up at him, this would kill him. But he had to know.

"Jude's gone... She's dead..." Sadie whispered it and the words choked her as Tommy's hands slid from her arms and fell limply at his side. His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open trying to form words he could not say. The fear was no longer a warning but a tight pain of sadness that gripped his heart and crushed it beneath icy-iron fingers. He sunk down to the floor against the sink cabinets. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his hands fisted in his hair as tears fell down his cheeks, making them sticky and red. Sadie watched him, wanting so much to comfort him. But she knew it would only make things worse on him.

Her parents needed to know, her mom was upstairs reading. And God only knew where her father was. But Sadie walked out of the room and ran up the stairs. Tommy followed her but stopped at Jude's room. He walked inside seeing the pictures on the walls, Sadie continued on to her mother who knew that Tommy was there. Tommy walked further in, and on top of her desk he saw it, her song book, the one he'd given her when they'd first met. The place where she had first written every song she had come up with. He took the brown leather book into his hands and felt her there. He collapsed onto the bed his knees too weak to hold him up any longer, he flipped through the pages when he heard her mother scream more in the sense of internal pain than physical pain.

So this was how fate played. Fate played cruel.

00

00

It was the next day and every family member had been informed. The young boy who had shot her turned himself in and confessed everything and even produced evidence an ashamed look on his face. Jude had been sent to local morgue. And Tommy requested to see her, so Sadie took him, knowing she couldn't stop him. So now they stood in the cold room a silver slab in front of them, Sadie held the bag of Jude's personal affects and clutched it to herself. She ran outside of the room not ready to see her sister lifeless and cold.

But Tommy stayed still and silent for a moment, he lifted his hand and pulled back the blue sheet that covered her. She was still wearing the bloody white shirt and jeans as well as her sneakers. To him she did not look dead, only sleeping. But he knew the truth; his knees gave out beneath him as he sobbed on the floor clutching one of her hands in his. She was gone and he remembered that moment as he lay on top of her grave. He remembered the day they'd met as he opened the bottle of sleeping pills. And after he'd downed every last pill he dreamed of the first time they'd kissed and then he saw her. She was immaculate and bathed in a bright yellowish white light, and she wore a white dress that blew around her ankles as she walked into his arms. She told him he shouldn't have done that, but kissed him none-the-less. The bright light at the end of the tunnel appeared and the angel led him in. 


End file.
